The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1887-08-25
1.-THE Young Lady,

the engineer, As the train slowly crest
ed long gradual grade. You're
atop of the Rocky Mountains now.
ma'am."
Emily Vaughn looked to left and to
right. and was conscious of \ feeling of
disappointment She had pictured the
top OF the Rocky Mountains as some
thing quite different from this. Here
were no frowning heights or sudden
CULTS, only wide-rolling plateau. some
distant peaks which did not look very
high. and far ahead glimpse of lower
levels running down into plains 1t
seemed hardly worth while to have
come SO far for so little.
'.Resllyr' she said. '.But where are
the mountains? They don't look nearly
so high as they did yesterday"
Naturally. ma'am." responded the
engineer; ''things don't appear SO high
when you're as high as they are. We're
atop. you know"
'.But there's no look-off. no wonder
full d stance. as from the top Of Mt
Washington. confess l am disap-
pointed"
ats kind of queer. said John Scott.
with dry chuckle. chow folks from
the East keep abiding to that ere
little hill as if it were the standard Of
measurement We don't think so much
of it this way. Why. ma'am. you're
about 1000 feet higher at this minute
than if YOU was at the top Of that little
shccs of Mt. Washington that they
all tn NIX so much Of"
Miss Vaughn smiled, but she expert
enccd shock nevertheless. The New
England mind does not easily accus-
tom itself to hearing its sacred noun
tain thus lightly spoken against.
Have you ever seen Mt. Washington"
she asked.
"Oh. bless you, vest! replied John
Scott. cheerfnlly. Il was raised over
TO fryeburg. and grew up alongside of
it. l thought it was a pretty big con-
Germ when l was boy. but now" He
closed the sentence with q short ex-
press We larg'.
Miss Vaughn changed the subject.
She was not offended. She had grown
to Ike this rongh, good-natured en-
gineer in the course OF the three days
journey. during which, favored as q
relat We of one of the directors of the
road. she had several times been prlvi-
legged to ride, as now, in the engi-
neer's cab for a better view of the
country.
Have you been long on this roadP"
she asked.
Pretty near ever since it opened.
Irun the third through train that came
nut from Chicago and havn't been
of the line since. Winter or Summer,
except for three months when l was
laid up with broken leg"
This must look very different in
Winter said Miss Vaughn. noting
The treeless distances, and the SHOWS
still glinting on the higher peaks to the
left.
You may believe it does! That first
year. when the snow sheds wasn't
built it was terrible. 1 was running
that train that stuck in the snow seven
days. perhaps you'll remember about
it; it was in all the papers. sha'n't
never forget that, not if live to be as
old as my grandfather, and he didn't
die till he was ninety odd"
Tell me about it." said Miss Vaughn,
persuasively, setting herself on the
high side bench Of the cab, with that
air of attention which is so en-
ticing to the story teller; amusements
are few and far between in the long
monotony of the overland journey to
California; besides which. Miss Vaughn
dearly loved story.
There amt much to tell" said
John Scott with something of the
feeling which prompts the young
vocalist to complain of hoarseness. Il
Amt any hand at telling things. either. "
Then. won by Miss Vaughn's appeal
ing eyes. he continued:
I'VE ran all fair and on time till we
was about 200 miles beyond Omaha.
Then the snow began. 1t didn't seem
much at first. The women-folk in the
train rather liked it.. They all crowded
10 the windows TO see. and the children
hurrahed. Anything seemed pleas
ant change after the sagebrush, sup
pose. But as it went on coming. and
the drifts grew deep, and the cars had
to run slow. the older ones began to
look serious, and / can tell you that we
who had charge of the train felt so.
I'VE was just between two of the
feeding stations, and we put on all the
steam we could, hoping to push through
To where provisions could be got at in
case we had to stop. But it want NO
use. The snow kept coming. never
see it come so. The flakes looked as
big as saucers, and the drifts piled Sc
quick that, when we finally stuck. in
about ten minutes no one could see out
Of the windows. The train would have
been clear buried over if the brakemen
and the porters hadn't gone the whole
length over the roofs every half-hour.
and swept it off with brooms and shov.
els. We had lot of shovels aboard, by
good luck. or else nothing could have
saved us from being banked up out
right. But it was terrible hard work,
can tell you. There want no more
laughing among the passengers by the
time it came to that, and the children
stopped hurrahing"
'-Oh. the poor little things! What
did they do? We're there many on
boarh? Was there plenty for them "a
eat?"
That was the worst Of it. There
wasn't plenty for any one to eat We
lad stuck just midway of the feeding